WebProNews

Company aims for broader ad market

The company's business model of online and TV advertising expanded through the year, with Spot Runner now laying off employees to bring on others suited to the new lines of services.

About 50 people received the dreaded pink slip from Los Angeles-based Spot Runner, as they reorganized to compete better for ad business in several areas beyond their original concentration as a video advertising company.

PaidContent said 40 of the positions will see new hires in their place. Spot Runner needs people who can do search marketing and radio advertising to suit the shift in business strategy.

Ex-Microsoft rising star Joanne Bradford, now the executive vice president at Spot Runner, still has responsibility for marketing the firm's services nationally. She will earn her paycheck if she can help the company stand out in a field crowded with ad competition.

Those competitors include global giant WPP, which holds three percent of Spot Runner. WPP's leader Martin Sorrell like the concept of getting local businesses into TV advertising, and as of September 2007 reportedly wanted a bigger stake in the company.

He may not be as thrilled with the path Spot Runner is taking now. As Valleywag noted, the change to marketing search ads and national TV ads puts them in the midst of crowded markets, dominated by existing players.